In the development and manufacture of paper products, particularly paper towels for the consumer market, it is a continual objective to improve the absorbent characteristics of the product. For cleaning up some spills, the consumer needs high absorbent capacity. For some uses, consumers want a fast rate of absorbency. For other uses, a combination of high absorbent capacity and fast absorbent rate is desired. At the same time, constraints on achieving this objective include the need to maintain or reduce costs in order to provide the consumer with the highest possible value, which in part means minimizing the amount of fiber in the product.